The lost ensemble

The landscape of Bund Garden, once an aesthetically pleasing recreational area, has changed in the last two decades due to rampant urban growth

Asystem of three bridges connects Yerwada with Bund Garden Road today — two for traffic and one as a pedestrian space — but, for many years, only the Fitzgerald Bridge served to cross the river. Built in 1867, the bridge was meant to connect the Civil Lines (near Koregaon Park) with Yerwada (and the important Ahmednagar Road). The bridge with 13 arches was built by Capt. R S Sellon, and named after Sir William Vesey-Fitzgerald who was the Governor of Bombay at the time of construction. It had a pair of Medici lions placed at the ends, in the high fashion of the 19th century — they have since been removed to Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Bridge.

The Bund Garden was one of the highlights of colonial Pune, serving as a promenade and a vantage from where to watch the end of the regatta. It was also built by Capt. Sellon at the same time as the Fitzgerald Bridge, and by 1869 it was already a destination. The gardens had a bandstand and a promenade lined with planted trees and potted plants. But it was the bund constructed in 1850, funded largely by Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy (2nd Baronet, who also funded the building of Deccan College in 1864) that was the catalyst for all this development. Built to check the flooding of the Mula–Mutha further downstream, the bund provided a perfect environment for recreational boating. In 1868, the Poona Boat Club (later the Royal Connaught Boat Club) was established just west of the bund, taking advantage of the lake waters of the bund. Apart from the Poona Boat Club, there were two others, the Deccan College Boat Club on the opposite bank, and the Boat Club at the Rosherville villa in Khadki (then spelt as Kirkee). The bund also became an important element in the waterworks for the Cantonment, providing much-needed supplies of clean water. The bund, called the Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy Bund, was featured in several news magazines, such as the
Illustrated London News.

Later, Rustamji Jamshedji Jeejeebhoy built himself a mansion (later purchased by Sir Albert Sassoon) on the southern bank of the Mula River, at a bend in the river located midway between Khadki and the bund, from where one could watch the Khadki–Pune boat races. In 1865, the College of Science (later College of Engineering, Pune), was built on the river bank next to the old Residency by the confluence of the Mula and Mutha rivers. But the area around the bund, which included the garden and the Fitzgerald Bridge, continued to be a recreational area, and in 1973, a bird sanctuary was inaugurated by Salim Ali in the vicinity. However, rampant urban growth in the past two decades has completely changed the landscape.

A new bridge was constructed in the late 20th century right next to the Fitzgerald Bridge, to supplement the old bridge. In 2011, another new bridge, named the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Bridge, was constructed to cater to the increase in traffic, connecting the Bund Garden with Deccan College Road. The Bund Garden was bisected by the new bridge. In 2015, a new barrage was constructed to dam the waters of the river, as the old Jamsetjee Bund had been demolished during the construction of the new bridge. The old bridge has been converted into an open-air art plaza by the Pune Municipal Corporation since 2016. The delightful ensemble of the old Jamsetjee Bund, the Fitzgerald Bridge, and the Bund Garden, which was aesthetically pleasing, has been lost. Instead, the 21st century has seen the addition of two ugly bridges and an intrusive barrage, along with the demolition of the historic bund. The area serves as a leitmotif of the growth of the city which the Pune Municipal Corporation has overseen in the past half century, where the integrity of historic sites and structures is routinely destroyed to make room for a haphazard increase in traffic.

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